Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Iowa State University (ISU).
Born in Havana, he and his family fled from Cuba to the United States in 1967, where he earned a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Washington in 1993. Author of nearly 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers and co-author of a major college-level astronomy textbook, Dr. Gonzalez’s work led to the discovery of two new planets, and his research has been featured in Science, Nature, and on the cover of Scientific American.
Dr. Gonzalez’s Scientific Research
In late 1995, Dr. Gonzalez began working on a long-term project to examine stars with planets in order to measure their properties. This has been a major part of Dr. Gonzalez’s scientific research, and he has published 15 articles in peer-reviewed science journals on the subject and continues to research new planets and systems. He discovered that stars are more like to host planets if they have more “metals” (elements heavier than Helium). Dr. Gonzalez’s research in this area led him (and his collaborators) to propose a concept called the Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ). The GHZ defines the region of the Milky Way Galaxy that is most habitable to complex life. The inner boundary of the GHZ is set by the maximum level of threats that permit complex life, such as comet showers and radiation from nearby supernovae. Its outer boundary is set by the minimum amount of metals needed to build Earth-like planets. Life on our planet owes its existence to the delicate balance among these and other factors. His work on the GHZ were described in Science and Nature, two of the world’s premiere scientific publications. And he and his collaborators wrote a cover story about the GHZ in Scientific American.
Dr. Gonzalez’s Book on Intelligent Design
In 2004, Dr.Gonzalez co-authored the book The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery, which presents empirical evidence for the hypothesis that the universe is the product of intelligent design. Supported by a research grant from the Templeton Foundation, the book has earned praised from such eminent scientists as David Hughes, a Vice-President of the Royal Astronomical Society, Harvard astrophysicist Owen Gingerich, and Cambridge paleobiologist Simon Conway Morris. The Privileged Planet was developed into a documentary and shown on PBS stations around the country.
Intelligent Design (ID)proposes that there is good evidence that some features of nature are best explained as the products of an intelligent cause not chance and necessity.
Jay W. Richards, co-author of “The Privileged Planet” writes, “So what is ID, really? ID is not a deduction from religious dogma or scripture. It’s simply the argument that certain features of the natural world—from miniature machines and digital information found in living cells, to the fine-tuning of physical constants—are best explained as the result of an intelligent cause.”
Click here for Richard’s entire article...
Click here to order “The Privileged Planet” book or DVD.
Attacks on Dr. Gonzalez’s Academic Freedom
After the release of The Privileged Planet, ISU religious studies professor Hector Avalos—faculty advisor to the campus Atheist and Agnostic Society—began publicly campaigning against Dr. Gonzalez and his work. Although Dr. Gonzalez had never introduced intelligent design into his classes, Avalos helped spearhead a faculty petition urging “all faculty” at ISU to “uphold the integrity of our university” by “reject[ing] efforts to portray Intelligent Design as science.” Avalos later conceded to a local newspaper that Gonzalez was the key motive for the petition. The logical conclusion of this campaign against Dr. Gonzalez came in the spring of 2007 when ISU President Gregory Geoffroy denied Dr. Gonzalez’s application for tenure.
